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94 people, organisations and other records · 122 relationships · 34 claims about a valueEverything recorded up to the chosen year, whether or not still in effect · Undated records included
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The 1863 letter "Darwin among the Machines" argues that if destroying every machine is impossible, people have already raised a race of machines they cannot destroy and are acquiescent in their bondage. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source; Context: primary · 1 source
Date 1863-06-13 · publication Role Earliest located Register (kind of text) Satirical Scope of the passage Control half only, reached through human dependence. Scope and limits The control half of the proposition, reached through dependence: the argument is conditional, and the letter gives machines no aims, no concealment and no self-improvement. The pseudonymous letter uses satirical devices, such as presenting its subject "gratis to the members of the Philosophical Society" and an appended note on rudimentary organs in machines, and in 1901 Butler named it as the first part of Erewhon written (read in a Project Gutenberg transcription that names no source printing; no 1901 printing was compared); whether it is earnest is uncertain.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
Darwin among the Machines ↗ The Press (Christchurch) · 1863-06-13
Archived copy, captured 2026-08-26: Darwin among the Machines ↗
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Source excerpt “this at once proves that the mischief is already done, that our servitude has commenced in good earnest, that we have raised a race of beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy, and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our bondage.” Location in source Penultimate paragraph, beginning "Our opinion is that war to the death", after the call to destroy every machine; column-image segment 5 of 6
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Cellarius (Samuel Butler) Version Papers Past article text (marked user-corrected) in the Internet Archive capture of 2026-08-26; quoted passages compared with the archived column images of the printed page (captured 2024-06-12). Papers Past returned a bot-protection page to scripted requests. A later check on 2026-10-06 verified the article text but could not retrieve the column images (HTTP 403). Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Archive copy Open archived copy, captured 2026-08-26: Darwin among the Machines ↗ . Captured 59609 days after the recorded publication date. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2026-08-26. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.Attribution The Press (Christchurch), 13 June 1863, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand). Reuse Public domain (published 1863; the author died in 1902). Papers Past: no known copyright (New Zealand).. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each) under Selekoa’s quotation policy. Public-domain text. Check notes Quote compared with the column image of the printed page (segment 5, captured 2024-06-12), where "pow-er" breaks across a line. Re-retrieved 2026-10-06; the capture matched the hash recorded by the pre-1996 candidate search. Check of the earliest located records, 2026-10-06: article text verified; printed wording unable, because the column-image capture returned HTTP 403. primary source Context only
Erewhon, or Over the Range (revised edition, with the prefaces of 1872 and 1901) ↗ Project Gutenberg (e-text 1906) · 1901
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Source excerpt “The first part of “Erewhon” written was an article headed “Darwin among the Machines,” and signed Cellarius.” Location in source Preface to the Revised Edition (dated 1901-08-07), second paragraph
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Samuel Butler Version Project Gutenberg e-text 1906 (released 1999, updated 2025) of the revised edition; it does not name its source printing. Retrieved 2026-10-06; no printed 1901 copy was compared. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Attribution Samuel Butler, Erewhon (revised edition, 1901), Project Gutenberg e-text 1906. Reuse Public domain (published 1872 and 1901; the author died in 1902).. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each) under Selekoa’s quotation policy. Public-domain text. Check notes Butler’s own account, written in 1901: it attributes the letter to Butler and ties it to Erewhon. Read in the Project Gutenberg transcription; no printed 1901 copy was compared. Context for attribution and register, not for the argument. Status and meaning Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor . An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
Relation. A passage of the document meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.
Date. Issue date of The Press, vol. III, issue 192, p. 1, in the Papers Past record.
Record ID ts-b6-butler-1863